Brexit: Sheep Farmers

Lord Hannay of Chiswick Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd May 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton]

My Lords, Brexit provides us with a perfect opportunity to review our subsidies. The vision in our consultation for the new English agricultural policy is around public money for the delivery of public good, and the uplands have the potential to benefit from new environmental land management schemes as they deliver a great deal of public good for the environment and landscape—for example, in improving biodiversity, flood risk management and carbon sequestration. We have consulted in England on what additional support farmers in upland areas may need as part of this new domestic policy and a report on this consultation’s findings will be published in due course.

[Lord Hannay of Chiswick (CB)]

Can the Minister go a little further than she did in her Answer to the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, and tell us what assessment the Government have made of the consequences for sheep farmers in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England if they have to face the full common external tariff, which will be the case if we leave under WTO terms? Further, what assessment have the Government made of the consequences of removing the protection of the common external tariff in the context, for example, of the trade agreement with New Zealand? If she does not have the figures at her fingertips, can she write to me and place a copy of her reply in the Library of the House?

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton]

My Lords, we are confident of getting a deal on Brexit, which is very important to remember. Obviously assessments are going on all the time as new data becomes available. Independent assessments have also been made, such as, for example, the Impacts of Alternative Post-Brexit Trade Agreements on UK Agriculture. This assessment covered the sheep sector and highlighted the importance of low-friction trade.